About 3 weeks ago I went to my 1 month follow up appointment with my surgeon, the physician who removed my right kidney so that it could be transplanted into my wife's body. It was a bit of a struggle to even get to the hospital, where the appointment was held, due to bad weather here in Indianapolis that week.
I get there and the nurse sits me down, takes my temperature and my blood pressure. My blood pressure is 151 over 86. But at least one other physician has noticed me having blood pressure that high in their offices before, blowing it off as white coat hypertension and nothing to be concerned about.
When I was trying to get cleared to be a living kidney donor about a year ago, I went in to a different doctor's office to get a stress test. My blood pressure was high at that time and the cardiologist wasn't concerned, but the kidney transplant team was. So, they had me do a 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure check, where my blood pressure was taken every 20 minutes for 24 hours (only once per hour at night though). My blood pressure was normal or close enough to get me cleared for being a living kidney donor.
My surgeon had no concerns about me, not about my blood pressure and not about how my surgical incisions were healing. So, the appointment ended quickly. I will see my surgeon again in 3 months for my 4 month follow up appointment. But the next day I get a call from my kidney transplant coordinator. She is worried about my blood pressure of 151 over 86. I tell her that I think that blood pressure reading reflected that I had a stressful time just getting to the appointment (and I needed to use the restroom right after my blood pressure was checked). TMI.
My kidney transplant coordinator then tells me that she spoke with one of the physicians on the kidney transplant team and they are giving me an anti-hypertensive, low dose, for 30 days with no refills. In 30 days they want me to check with my primary care physician and see if this medication needs to be continued.
I tell my coordinator that I will begin taking my blood pressure at home each day and provide my primary care physician the results, so he can see how I am doing. I get the medication prescription filled, but I never start taking it. I purchase a brand new Omron blood pressure cuff-device to measure my blood pressure. It's pretty cool, with bluetooth capability to transfer the results to my smart phone.
So, I try to set up an appointment with my primary care physician about hypertension, but he says he thinks the kidney transplant team should deal with it. So, I find a new primary care physician, set up an appointment and she checks my blood pressure. It's 125 over 77. My at home blood pressure measurements are pretty good. So, she tells me to just check my blood pressure twice per week and that, as it stands now, I need not take the medication I was given.
I understand why my kidney transplant coordinator wanted to protect my kidneys and, thus, pressed to get me some treatment when she saw that 151 over 86 reading on my chart. But I don't think it's a good idea to diagnose someone with hypertension based on a single blood pressure reading.
But that's just me pretending to be a physician. What do I know?
Last edited by Spiral on Sat Mar 13, 2021 3:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.